Wow, this whole birthday month stuff is exhausting! Especially when the birthday month has five weeks in it (nice one, Mum).
But it's nearly over and our wallets will soon be able to breath a sigh of relief.
The dinner at The Watergrill was a highlight. When I'd called them to make the reservation, I'd asked if the restaurant was BYO (BYO=Bring Your Own alcohol), as Mum had a $400 bottle of Penfolds she wanted to bring with her. The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Oh, are you BYO?"
Them: "No, I'm sorry."
Me: "Oh dear."
Them [huffily]: "We have a wine list with over 240 wines on it!"
Me: "Ah, that's not quite the problem. It's my Mum's 60th and she's been saving this bottle of Penfolds Grange for this occasion."
Them: "Ah. 60th you say?"
Me: "Yeah."
Them: "Grange?"
Me: "Yeah."
Them [confidentially]: "Tell her to bring it along."
And they didn't even charge us to open the bottles (some restaurants charge 'corkage'--a fee for opening and pouring the wine because you're too cheap to buy their wine).
They treated us like royalty and made a great show of decanting the wine for Mum. And I must say, it was GOOD.
I've also catered lunch and a tea party for Mum in the last two weeks. The wall has been knocked down and cabinets are being put up. Soon we'll have to help tear up the lino in the kitchen and her carpet.
She'd better have had a good one, I'm absolutely buggered.
Monkey Business
Managed to lose about 5 
despite stuffing myself with chocolate brownie cake, bombe alaska and chocolate chip cookies. Oh, and all the alcohol!
What's all this monkey business about, then?
Speaking of birthdays... come by and see my birthday news.
And Happy Hippos to all!
-P
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It is good that they were good sports about it. Sounds like it was a nice celebration, indeed.
I remember when my mother turned 60. I gave her a strand of pearls that one of my ex-husbands had given me. I was broke and though what the hell, I'll just give her these old things... She priced it at a local department store and said they were worth $1500.00. :-0 I didn't miss a beat when I said she deserved every single pearl. ;-)